


Forgotten Memories Always Hurt the Worst

by CraneGenesis



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Depression, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, My First AO3 Post, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:00:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25238875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CraneGenesis/pseuds/CraneGenesis
Summary: “Get up!” was the last thing he had heard before a bucket full of water was splashed onto him, waking him up from any dream he was having.Joker couldn’t quite remember what his dream was about, but he couldn’t focus right now with the constant ringing in his ears and the sharp pain in his head. Joker tried opening his eyes, but instantly tightened them again due to the bright light shining directly in his face.“Wha-”? Joker croaked. He opened his eyes again, adjusting himself to the light, and started to look around him, trying to find out where he was. The room he was in was no bigger than the interrogation room where he was questioned by Sae. There was a door in the back, and that there was a shadowy figure lurking behind the light that he couldn’t recognize, and worst of all, he was in his phantom thief attire.
Relationships: Kitagawa Yusuke/Sakura Futaba, Kurusu Akira/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Sakamoto Ryuji/Takamaki Ann
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	1. A Rude Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Akira wakes up in another interrogation room, only this time, the stakes are a little higher.

“Get up!” was the last thing he had heard before a bucket full of water was splashed onto him, waking him up from any dream he was having. 

Joker couldn’t quite remember what his dream was about, but he couldn’t focus right now with the constant ringing in his ears and the sharp pain in his head. Joker tried opening his eyes, but instantly tightened them again due to the bright light shining directly in his face. Still trying to grasp hold of the situation he was in, a punch in the gut instantly got rid of any drowsiness he was feeling, knocking the wind out of his lungs.

Struggling to breath he heard the voice from before say, “There, that’ll wake you up.”

“Wha-”? Joker croaked, his stomach still recovering from the strike against his gut. He opened his eyes again, adjusting himself to the light, and started to look around him, trying to find out where he was. The room he was in was no bigger than the interrogation room where he was questioned by Sae. There was a door in the back, and that there was a shadowy figure lurking behind the light that he couldn’t recognize, and worst of all, he was in his phantom thief attire.

“Don’t say you don’t remember me, do you?” the voice said, sounding smug about something.

That’s when Joker remembered something, something that he had pushed down all those years ago.

“Honoka?” Akira asked, feeling several mixed emotions.

“Finally remembering, aren’t you Kurusu?” Honoka said, stepping in the light, revealing herself.

Joker struggled a bit, only to find he was tied to the seat he was sitting on with rope. Several plans started firing through his head to escape, each one sounding more and more impossible from the last.

“Why are you here?” Joker asked, stalling while he kept on trying to think up ways to escape, “You should be dead.”

“I’m hurt, to think that you would be saying that to ME of all people, after you faked your own death” Honoka replied, that smug voice shaking Joker to his core.

“Still though,” Joker retaliated, “I watched you die in my arms.”

“On the contrary,” Honoka said, not missing a beat, “Someone had to watch you die as well, otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten away.”

But you didn’t have to shoot yourself right in front of my eyes,” Joker yelled, getting really emotional all of the sudden, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be breaking himself out. “Didn’t you at least think about how anyone else would feel if you killed yourself? How I would feel?”

Honoka looked surprised for a second. Then she fell back into a smug expression, but there was doubt in her eyes, as if she were unsure of herself, trying not to let emotions get the better of her.

“En-” Honoka whispered in a shaky tone. Quickly, she cleared her throat and started speaking louder in her self-assured voice again. “Enough to know that nobody would miss me.”

Joker, taking notice to the change in tone, quickly devised a plan to get himself out. “Do you know how many nights your parents cried themselves to sleep after hearing what you did, how many nightmares your little brother had about seeing your body at the funeral, how many times that moment kept repeating over and over and over again in my own head, until we forgot? It took years to forget, Honoka, YEARS.”

Honoka lost her smile, “I’m supposed to be gaining intel on you, not taking a trip down memory lane, now you’d better tell me what I want to know.”

“To think that my best friend would commit suicide right in front of me. Not an explanation, not a confession, not even a goodbye, you just left like you meant nothing to the people around you.”

“Shut up.” Honoka said, pulling out Joker’s knife, “Or else.”

“I loved you,” Joker blurted out realizing this would be her breaking point, “I loved you, and you abandoned me, just like everyone else in my life.

With a wail of desperation, Honoka lunged toward Joker, and tried to stab him, not knowing that he was a step ahead. Joker at the last second, angled the chair in such a way that the knife ended up cutting the rope, setting him free.

Joker’s brain moved a mile a minute, as he stood up before Honoka could recover. 

“PERSONA” Joker shouted as Baphomet was summoned. “Bufudyne” Joker casted, freezing Honoka in place. 

Not taking any time to recover, Joker ran up to Honoka to grab his knife and look for any other belongings he might have missed. He ran up to a table and grabbed his phone, his gun, and anything else that might have been his. 

Realizing that Honoka would break free at any time now, Akira ran out of the room, and used the metanav to escape from mementos.

Finally taking a breather, Akira realized that he was in shibuya, checking the time, he saw that it was midnight and knowing that he couldn’t go back to Leblanc because the trains were probably already closed for the night; he texted Ryuji.

Akira: Hey Ryuji, can I crash over at your house for the night? Something came up and I wasn’t able to get back to Leblanc.

Ryuji: Yeah, you can come on over, I don’t think my mom will care, what happened?

Akira: I’ll talk to everyone about it tomorrow, for now, I am really tired.

Ryuji: You sure man? Oh well, you know where I live, I’m just playing video games right now so I’ll be there when you get here.

Akira: Thanks a lot! I owe you one.

Akira then texted the rest of the phantom thieves to set up the meeting at Leblanc for tomorrow.

Joker: Everyone, meet up at Leblanc tomorrow, I have something to discuss with you all. Don’t ask any questions, just make sure you're there.

Panther: Ok leader, we’ll be there!

Fox: Understood.

Queen: You got it Joker.

Noir: If it’s this important, I’ll make sure I’m there!

Violet: No problem senpai!

Oracle: Hey, Mona is asking where you have been.

Joker: Tell Mona I’m sorry, but we’ll have to talk about it tomorrow, I’ll explain everything then.


	2. The Worst Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once he got to Ryuji's house, Akira falls asleep, and has the worst dream he's had in years.

Akria was so caught up in thought that he didn’t even realise he had finally gotten to Ryuji’s house. He blinked for the first time in what seemed like minutes, and took a deep breath. He reached his hand up, and before he could even knock the door, Ryuji opened it, and gave him a huge bear hug. Akira stood there for a few seconds, embracing his best friend's silent reassurance, letting him know everything was alright, before letting go and heading inside. 

Ryuji led him to his small room. There was a makeshift bed that was obviously a futon, a small mat on the floor with a small tv and gaming system, a closet that was barren except for a few shirts and his former Shujin uniform, and a table right in the middle of the room that was full of empty bags of chips, half eaten pizza slices, and empty soda cans. Ryuji offered Akira a seat on the bed and they both sat in silence for a minute or two before Ryuji spoke up. 

“Look man, I don’t know what happened, but I just want you to know that I will always be there for you.” He said

Akira looked up to Ryuji and gave him a soft smile, “Thanks,” was all he could get out.

“I can understand if you don’t want to talk about anything for now, so I will leave you alone about anything that happened today. But you are obviously drained from whatever it was, so you can borrow a pair of pajamas if you need them for tonight.”

“I think I will be fine,” Akira responded.

“Alright then,” Ryuji said skeptically, “At the very least, take the bed tonight, you need to make sure you’re all rested for tomorrow so you can give us the details then.”

Akira nodded, then layed down to fall asleep, apparently he was a lot more tired than he thought because he fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed. 

That’s when he finally remembered what the dream was before he woke up in the interrogation room.

“Come on Akira, what are you waiting for?” a voice shouted a few meters away.

Akira looked up from what he was doing and looked back at Honoka. Honoka was an average looking girl, she had purple dyed hair in the shape of pigtails, green eyes and facial expressions that seemed a little too sure of herself “I told you already,” Akira said, “I’m not sure we should be going there.”

Honoka scoffed, “as if we would be getting into any trouble, nobody will see us, I promise you, just twenty minutes, in and out.”

Akira sighed, “Fine, but this is the last time I’m doing this.”

Honoka gave a smug smile and pulled out her phone, tapping on an app that she downloaded a few months ago. Akira didn’t know all the details about it, all he knew was that regular apps couldn't change his neighborhood to look like it came from a cheesy 70’s horror flick.

As Honoka spoke a few words into the phone, Akira’s vision began to fuzz, then when his vision focused again, everything looked red, like he put on red tinted glasses. There were also a lot of veins there for some reason, like it was inside a heart.

He and Honoka had been exploring around the place before, actually they had done it for several weeks, but the last time they had come in, they had encountered what looked like a police officer with a mask on. Walking up to it, Akira and Honoka asked how the police officer got here, only for the officer to chase them until Honoka took them back to their world.

It hadn’t been a week since that incident before Honoka wanted to go back, but Akira was still skeptical about it. Technically Akira was always skeptical about it, but the first few times, he only went so he could spend more time with Honoka. After several days nagging Akira, this is where he ended up. Hopefully he never had to worry about it again, as long as Honoka kept her promise.

Akira looked around the neighborhood a little before turning around and asking Honoka “What are we doing here?”

That’s when he noticed the thing that Honoka was looking at.

“Is that you?” Akira asked.

Honoka looked back from what looked like an exact copy of her, “I’ve been going here without you for a while now, and I've found copies of everyone. the only reason I brought you here today was to ask you something.”

“Why?” Akira asked, looking from the replica back to the real Honoka, “What’s going on?”

Honoka took a deep breath and started speaking “You have seen proof of me in this world, what's to stop me from giving up that life, and making this version impersonate me? 

Akira, feeling very confused, asked, “What do you mean?”

Honoka suddenly pulled up a gun from her pocket to her head “It has the same emotions, the same memories, the same everything, why can’t it replace me?”

“Come on, try to be reasonable about this,” Akira said, trying to defuse the situation.

“No, you be reasonable about this Akira” Honoka shouted, “I’ve been treated horribly my entire life, by my parents, by my peers, by my idols, even you, my best friend knew, yet you didn’t even try to help. Well now I have the means to get away from this fucked up life.”

“Honoka, please don’t, I’ve tried to help in the past but-”

“No Akira, you have never tried to help me, all you have done is become a stain on my life, I hope you enjoy my own shadow better than the real me.”

Then she pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Sorry its been a while, I literally have no reason as to not upload, but I've recently hit a bit of inspiration so hopefully this will mean I will write a little more often! In the meantime though, hope this is enough.

**Author's Note:**

> This us literally my first time making a AO3 post, or even a full length story, so I will expect criticism, but please take it easy. I'm very new to this whole story writing process.


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